Boundless Frontier

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Hello everyone! I know it has been quite a while since the last update. I have been busy adjusting to college life, so my time to work on this has been reduced. In addition, the inventory system had been giving me endless trouble in implementation that smothered much of my enthusiasm to work on the game. Luckily, I've now settled into college life and conquered the issues I was having with the inventory system!

A lot has changed since the last release (V0022 way back in May). In fact, this is essentially an entirely new game, both in the current features present and the direction I would like to take the game. While the game has progressed significantly since the last release, the actual features in this release have decreased. As a matter of fact, there isn't much to do right now aside from walking around and opening your inventory. Many of the previous features are still present in the code, but need to be updated to the new control scheme.

These changes are made to reflect the evolution of what this game is, changing to a more RTS/RPG feel. In addition, the name of the game is also changing to Obelisk, to reflect some true story elements I've been working on. There will be more information to come on that down the line.

In the meantime, I leave with you Obelisk InDev Version 0027: Download!

Friday, October 10, 2014

So the inventory system took much longer than expected. After about a month hiatus due to my entrance to university, I've finally settled down and resumed the seemingly endless struggle with Libgdx's UI system. Thankfully, the inventory is coming along quite nicely now, with most of the visual work finished. All that remains is equipping and unequipping items through the UI and adding item counts next to stacks of items. My goal is to release an update after the inventory system is finished, which will hopefully be within a week.

Make sure to check the Change Log if you are interested in daily updates on progress, and also visit the new Near-Term Plans page if you're curious where the game is heading next.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

I've been logging a large amount of coding hours lately, working on the new lighting system, movement, inventory, combat, and a whole list of game components. I've also been creating some new art, some of which will hopefully make it to the final game (the character sprite for example). The big change is that I've finally locked in as having a top down view for the characters. Here's a rough list of what I've accomplished since the last release:

Completely implemented A* pathfinding in place of the previous movement system for all entities, including the player. Simply right click a tile, and your character will move off.

Added a modular character animation system, with a simple walking animation to start with.

Added a lighting system with a full day-night cycle. The background work for adding lights is also existing.

Cleaned up the code a significant amount, removing much of the code from old systems that are no longer viable. Also began commenting to organize some of the code.

These changes all add up to a rather different game than the last release. In fact, all of this upgrading actually leads to less visible playability at the moment. All one can do at the moment is walk around and explore the world. Of course, for the purpose of testing, I will be releasing it like that for anyone interested. I'm currently in the process of establishing the inventory system. After that is finished, a release can be expected!

In the meantime, stay tuned to the changelog for day-to-day updates with discussion of features!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

I've been unfortunately busy this summer, however I did find time yesterday for a considerable amount of coding. I used some of the time to continue working on the new movement and combat systems. However, I also tackled a part of the game I'd been meaning to work on for a while: Lighting!

Colonist now contains a full day-night cycle, where one second in reality equates to one minute in the game. In addition, I've started developing code for adding lights, although I have yet to add any objects to create light.

Monday, July 7, 2014

As you may have noticed, updates have been somewhat sporadic lately. I would like to explain why. I have not given up on Colonist, in fact my interest in working on it has only increased. Unfortunately, my available time has not. I'm currently working 40 hours a week at a summer job, and amongst other activities resulting from my recent graduation and forthcoming entrance to college, I have very little time to code and develop. I will continue to code whenever I am able, however the updates may be sporadic. Ironically, I will likely have more time to work on Colonist once school starts.
I would just like to thank whoever has been keeping tabs on the game, your continued interest inspires me to accomplish more.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

So I recently posted that the pathfinding was still going to take some time. Turns out I was wrong, a few minutes after making the post I was able to work out the bugs and get pathfinding working! There are some known bugs (the game will crash if you barricade yourself into a mountain), but it is now playable. Version 0022 can be downloaded here: Download!

Update on Pathfinding Progress:
I have been working on the A* path finding algorithm for some time now. It is a fairly complex addition to the game, if not the most complex (Diamond Square, used for map generation, does give it a run for its money). Given the complexity, there are many pieces of code that need to be added and even more bugs that need to be ironed out. Unfortunately, this means that I still am not able to release the next update. Work is ongoing, and I have made considerable progress, considering I'm learning this algorithm as I go.
The actual pathfinding code itself is up and running, and it is generating some adequate, if not always the most efficient, paths. Currently, I am working on getting the NPCs to follow that path. To do this, the previous movement code needs to be torn apart and reassembled, which is why it is taking so long. I will provide a link to download the next version as soon as I have a playable release.

Changelog:
In other news, I have created a changelog in an effort to better document my progress on Colonist. I have made it public, so you can follow the day-by-day progress on the game. You should be able to find the link to the changelog on the right hand side of the blog.